Donald Trump reacts to news that he won a trip to the Bahamas,after purchasing a hundred dollars worth of tickets with a hundred dollar bill at the Greater Nashua Chamber of Commerce business expo Wednesday, May 11, 2011.

Donald Trump reaches into his pocket for a hundred dollar bill to purchase raffle tickets for a Bahamas trip at the Greater Nashua Chamber of Commerce luncheon and business expo Wednesday, May 11, 2011. Trump won.

Trump wins raffled trip to Bahamas

By CAMERON KITTLE

Staff Writer

NASHUA – Of all the people to win a pair of tickets to the Bahamas, why not the man with more than $3 billion to spend?

That was the ironic twist Wednesday at the “Nashua Expo” luncheon, where famous New York billionaire Donald Trump chipped in $100 for raffle tickets for the Greater Nashua Chamber of Commerce and ended up winning the contest’s grand prize: a trip to the Bahamas.

Trump donated the tickets before he left the Expo at the Radisson Hotel Nashua, but everyone had a good laugh at the announcement.

“The guy probably owns an island in the Bahamas somewhere,” said Scott Tranchemontagne, president of Montagne Communications in Manchester. “It was a classic ‘All about the Benjamins’ moment.”

Trump walked by the chamber’s booth at the expo and whipped out a fresh, folded $100 bill to pitch in for the raffle, buying 20 tickets.

When he pulled out the bill, Tranchemontagne said the girls working the booth were “astounded.”

“When he leaned in and held out a folded up bill, nobody was quite sure what it was,” he said. “They unfolded it and held it up and it was a hundred.”

Trump was told he’d won the raffle about 15 minutes later.

“It did make for a light-hearted moment,” Williams said. “Everybody had a good laugh about it.”

From there, the plot thickens.

Chamber President Chris Williams said Trump donated the trip back to the organization to be used as a raffle item at a future chamber event, but another man said Trump handed it to him.

Curtis Barry, of The Dupont Group in Concord, said Trump gave him the trip certificate on the way from the Radisson Hotel Nashua to Boire Field and asked Barry to donate it to a charity.

“I have the certificate and am working out the details,” Barry said in an e-mail.

Trump was in Nashua to speak at the expo, sponsored by the chamber, and talk to businesses about his political views and a possible presidential campaign.

It was no surprise to the “throng” of people following Trump when the bill he pulled out of his pocket for the raffle turned out to be a $100, Tranchemontagne said.

“That’s how he rolls,” he said. “I’d be surprised if he has any bills smaller than a hundred.”

Cameron Kittle can be reached at 594-6523 or ckittle@nashuatelegraph.com.